Navicular Horse

[cjnickols]

Hi, I have a 20 year old mare that was diagnosed with Navicular 2 years ago. At the time she had a long toe and underslung heels. She was put in Natural Balance shoes with pads for about a year, this dramatically helped her and decreased her signs of lameness. For the past 8 months she has been out of the NBshoes and the farrier has just been squaring her toes on the front foot and setting the shoe back a little bit. Her angles are back to where they should be and she has a sufficient amount of heel. My concern is, that she has no frog. I am aware that it naturally sheds, but she has had no frog for about 3 months now or longer. I am afraid that without a frog, or the frog not close to the ground she will not have the proper blood flow to the hoof. When she was in NBshoes she had a pad on that was molded to simulate a frog. I am not sure if maybe she needs these pads again? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[waynevuolo]

Hey,
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[calshoer]

I would be a bit concerned of your mare frogs are decreasing in width or size. Especially If she has been allowed to grow taller heels without frog support to try to mainatain a certain hoof angle. Much better for the foot is to keep the heels trimmed down and use the NB frog support wedge pad.(or a castle frog support pad, or a Myron Mclain frog support pad etc, just SOME kind of frog support pad )
The frog has more fuinctions that just circiulation. It is also a vital part of aligning the coffin joint, and misalignment of the coffin joint is one common cause of navicular problems.
As well, a square toe is not quite the same thing as the special toe design of the NB shoe.The NB shoe is more rounded all around the corners of the toe which will minimize stress better on the ligament connections at the ends of the navicular bones on turnuing, and within the coffin joint. .
Why did the farrier quit using the NB shoes and pads anyway if they were working well ?
Patty